RRW Aen'rhien
Romulan Star Empire, Romulan Star Navy, Tal'Shiar | status = Active | yard = | laid = 2372 | launched = 2374 | comm = | decomm = | length = | beam = | diameter = | draft = | mass = | decks = | crew = | speed = | armament = | defenses = | docking = | shuttle = 6 runabouts | image2 = | caption2 = |hideb=yes }} The ch'M'R Aen'rhien (ChMR 221) was a Romulan warbird active from the late 24th century through the early 25th. Launched at the height of the Dominion War as the ch'R Aen'rhien (ChR 20334), it served with distinction for many decades. In , its name meant . Starfleet Intelligence recorded the vessel as first the IRW ''Aen'rhien, then the '''RRW ''Aen'rhien'. History With new threat of the Dominion and the disastrous , the ordered an enormous military buildup in early 2372. Reserves were called up, a was initiated, and over a thousand new warships were ordered. The ''Aen'rhien was part of a lot of 120 new D'deridex-class battlecruisers called for by the military appropriation bill. It was the fourth Romulan Star Navy vessel to bear that name, an ancestral one older than the Romulan civilization that first belonged to one of the colony ships that carried the Romulans to Romulus during the . The vessel and her sister ships featured numerous small design updates inspired by various encounters with Federation starships. Dominion War Construction at the shipyard in the Eisn system was complete in mid-2374 but it appeared that the buildup had been for naught, as the Romulan Star Empire had signed a non-aggression treaty with the Dominion late the previous year. However, with the assassination of Merken tr'Vreenak, apparently by the Dominion, the Romulans marshaled several fleets for a multi-pronged surprise attack on the Cardassian border, including the Aen'rhien under Commander Adranna t'Thulhivin, and at 0800 hours Deep Space 9 time, the declaration of war came and the Romulans stormed the border mere seconds later. During the assaults on the Dominion bases at Rho Epsilon 23327 VII and the Aen'rhien was credited with seventeen confirmed Jem'Hadar or Cardassian kills, including four capital ships. alongside turncoat Cardassian vessels at the in 2375.]] The Aen'rhien would later fight alongside Starfleet and Klingon forces at and the . Along with the and vessels in the fleet she and her sister ships proved to be among the few that could challenge the Jem'Hadar battleships one-on-one. In total the Aen'rhien made thirty-seven sorties during the Dominion War and received full or partial credit for sixty-nine kills. Postwar service In early 2376 Commander t'Thulhivin took a position at the Romulan Naval Academy and was replaced by Commander Gurrhim tr'Khnialmnae. With the Klingon Defense Force severely weakened by wartime losses the Aen'rhien was assigned to head up a task force that annexed forty-seven square light-years of Klingon space, including a number of lightly defended fringe worlds. Resistance proved light, with a number of Klingon or mercenary garrisons that hadn't seen action during the war years surrendering without a fight. However a Klingon counterattack in 2378 forced the Romulans to relinquish most of these gains. During the Romulan Civil War tr'Khnialmnae remained loyal to the Empire but had relatives, including his older sister Commander Lahae t'Khnialmnae, fighting for the Imperial Romulan State under Empress Donatra t'Ehweia. The Aen'rhien was part of Fleet Admiral Tomalak tr'Savrilan's fleet during the attack on in 2383. Lahae commanded the during the same battle. The Aen'rhien disabled the Rohallhik with fire to the impulse drives but, not wishing to kill his own kin, Gurrhim refused to finish her off. Subsequently the IRS ships forced the Imperials into retreat. In 2384 the review board investigating the battle tried to remove Gurrhim from command for not completing the kill, but he instead chose to resign to maintain mnhei'sahe. The Aen'rhien spent six months in the shipyard during the subsequent political upheaval surrounding the assassination of Praetor Tal'aura t'Melanth and was finally reassigned to the command of Subadmiral Ashelan t'Llhweiir in 2385. The ship spent the next two years on the Romulan-Klingon border. Hobus In 2387, with the nearby star Hobus threatening to become a supernova the Senate ordered all available ships to converge on Romulus to begin evacuating the population; the Aen'rhien was among the ships to respond. Twenty-seven hours later the star violently exploded. The shockwave breached subspace and traveled across the intervening space at faster-than-light speeds, obliterating the Eisn system and killing billions of Romulans and Remans. The Aen'rhien diverted to help guard one of the few convoys that made it out of the system. Over next several years the Aen'rhien worked closely with the Federation in coordinating and delivering relief supplies to refugee populations. Politically Subadmiral t'Llhweiir aligned herself with Admiral Taris t'Vahrenlhis, who eventually rose to the top of the competing factions and reforged the Romulan Star Empire into a cohesive government. However, in 2397 t'Llhweiir made a very public protest of the heavy-handed tactics used by the Tal'Shiar in recent police actions, which had resulted in many civilian casualties. She was subsequently arrested and executed after a brief trial. Her executive officer Savarlir t'Shelyarin took over command and sided with General Tebok tr'Asrafel during the subsequent power struggle between him and Taris. In 2403 she joined with Sela t'Tavrion and Tebok's successor Velal t'Hrienteh in ousting Taris. In 2404 t'Shelyarin was killed in a skirmish with Klingon Defense Force ships under General . After repairs the ship was granted to the Tal'Shiar by Praetor Sela. Colonel Avronhar tr'Khasdan was placed in command. For the next five years the ship was used in a number of so-called police actions, but in 2407, following the near-destruction by the Aen'rhien of a refugee convoy in a botched attempt to ferret out a Unificationist cell, the Federation Department of Justice issued a warrant for tr'Khasdan's arrest for crimes against sentience. The next year a Starfleet squadron led by the encountered the Aen'rhien in the and disabled her, killing 157 members of the crew, arresting over three hundred Tal'Shiar on various charges, and liberating four hundred prisoners. The hulk was retrieved by the Romulan military and taken to in the system for repairs. Romulan Republic is hit during the escape from .]] Repairs were completed by 2409, and the engineers at S'harien Station also retrofitted the vessel with reverse-engineered Borg technology, including a subtranswarp engine and s. The vessel was assigned to Subadmiral Aevas tr'Ethian, but tr'Ethian was secretly in contact with the Romulan Republic's Tal'Diann and notified them of his intent to defect with his vessel. Before the warbird's relaunch, however, a snafu occurred. Starfleet attacked the Dimorus system to stop the experiments with Borg technology. The Tal'Diann arrived on the in the midst of the fighting and requested the to open a path for the Aen'rhien. The bridge was hit by defensive fire in the confusion and tr'Ethian and most of his command crew were killed. The D'serek towed the Aen'rhien to New Romulus for further repairs and retrofits, and Commander Morgaiah t'Thavrau accepted command. A veteran of the RSN before Hobus, she was a strong believer in the old codes of Romulan conduct, and made it her mission to redeem the name "Aen'rhien" from the stains made on it during its tenure as a Tal'Shiar vessel. The Republic stepped up its offensive against the Tal'Shiar and Sela, now the self-proclaimed Empress Sela I, culminating in the discovery by the Aen'rhien s crew that the Tal'Shiar, and more specifically former Praetor Taris and Colonel Hakeev tr'Areinnal, were directly responsible for the Hobus event. It was not a mere natural disaster, but deliberate mass murder at the behest of the Iconians. The revelation shook Romulan space to the core, and even the Tal'Shiar were unable to quell the chaos. The Federation closed its embassy on Nova Roma and the Federation Council condemned the Empire as a rogue state. Meanwhile a number of Imperial planets declared independence, sometimes after their governments were toppled by uprisings. The Republic pushed its advantage home amid the chaos, and in August 2409, alongside Obisek of the Reman Resistance, the Aen'rhien attacked Hakeev's base on during a visit by Empress Sela. Hakeev was personally executed by t'Thavrau with her service pistol, and Sela's flagship was disabled by the attackers. Sela and the Leahval were then kidnapped by an Iconian warship. For her part in the battle, t'Thavrau was promoted to subadmiral. For the remainder of the year, the Aen'rhien patrolled the alongside the . ( ) 2410 In 2410 the Undine launched a major offensive in the Beta Quadrant, making coordinated attacks against Earth and Qo'noS. In defiance of orders from Proconsul D'Tan tr'Sathe to stay and defend New Romulus, Commander Tiaru t'Jarok led every available warbird in the defense of the Klingon Empire to blunt the assault on Qo'noS. In the opening volleys t'Thavrau's helmsman was killed in a console explosion and she took personal control of the helm. Late in the fight an appeared, and Captain Va'Kel Shon of the debarked in the to try and destroy it with a ramming attack. The Aen'rhien and the escorted him in, and the Bajor beamed him off before impact. The Aen'rhien was then damaged by a parting shot from an Undine class, injuring t'Thavrau's right arm. ( ) Later that year the Aen'rhien was sent into the Delta Quadrant as part of an exploration mission. It responded to a distress signal from a freighter, the Axiana and destroyed several Kazon ships attacking it. T'Thavrau then made first contact with the Optrican Assemblage. ( ) Crew As IRW Aen'rhien ;Commanding officer: *Commander Adranna t'Thulhivin (2374-2376; accepted position at Romulan) *Commander Gurrhim tr'Khnialmnae (2376-2384; resigned) *Subadmiral Ashelan t'Llhweiir (2385-2397; arrested by Tal'Shiar and executed) *Commander Savarlir t'Shelyarin (2397-2404; killed in action) *Colonel Avronhar tr'Khasdan (2404-2408; captured by Starfleet and convicted of crimes against sentience) *Subadmiral Aevas tr'Ethian (2409; killed during attempted defection to the Romulan Republic) ;Executive officer As RRW Aen'rhien ;Commanding officer *Subadmiral Morgaiah t'Thavrau (2409-pres) Category:Romulan starships Category:Romulan Republican Force starships Category:D'deridex class starships